Hiring specifically in back-office functions such as human
resources will be suspended or slowed, Krishna said, adding that 30 percent of
non-customer-facing roles could be replaced by AI and automation in five years.
His comment comes at a time when AI has caught the
imagination of people around the world after the launch of Microsoft-backed
OpenAI's viral chatbot, ChatGPT, in November last year.
The reduction could include not replacing roles vacated by
attrition, the PC-maker told the publication.
IBM did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for
comment.
Last month, it was reported that investors in US tech giants
would scrutinize if the cost cuts and layoffs boosted profits to their
satisfaction, while the companies emphasized how artificial intelligence will
be their next growth driver.
Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet, along with Amazon, said
between November and March they would slash 70,000 jobs in a rapidly weakening
economy, following a pandemic-led hiring boom. Meta has announced two rounds of
layoffs. The companies were expected to give updates on their AI efforts, a
trend noticeable since last quarter when chief executives packed earnings calls
with mentions of the technology.
Microsoft has integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT technology into
its search engine Bing, pitting it against market leader Google.
Google has begun the public release of its chatbot Bard.
Amazon's cloud division AWS, the world's largest, has
released a suite of technologies aimed at helping other companies develop their
own chatbots backed by AI, and Meta has published an AI model that can pick out
individual objects from within an image. © Reuters